Go M.A.D.

How to Avoid a Bummer Summer

• Doug and Brad Hutchcraft • Season 3 • Episode 15

Share episode

Well we officially made it. It’s the end of season 3 of Go M.A.D. The only reason we’re not tearing up is that we’re already jazzed for season 4. Yes, jazzed. That and we can’t stop laughing about Brad’s Panera Bread story - just listen for yourself. Today, Doug and Brad give tips on how to avoid a “bummer summer” by being intentional with your time and your relationships. We hope you have a great summer and look forward to starting the conversation again in the fall. 


Connect with us on social media and / or email:

Twitter - @GoMADPodcast
Facebook - facebook.com/gomadshow
Instagram - @gomadshow
YouTube - @gomadshow
Email - gomadshow@hutchcraft.com

Or find out more about us on our website: gomadpodcast.com

Enjoy the show? We'd love it if you took a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/go-m-a-d/id1593068456

Thank you for listening and Go M.A.D. today!

Speaker 1:

Well, we officially made it. It's the end of season three of Go Mad. The only reason we're not tearing up is that we're already jazzed for season four. Yes, jazzed that. And we can't stop laughing about Brad's Panera Bread story. Just listen for yourself. Today, Doug and Brad give tips on how to avoid a bummer summer by being intentional with your time and with your relationships. We hope you have a great summer and we look forward to starting the conversation again in the fall. Ready, let's go mad.

Speaker 2:

Welcome everyone to Go Mad with Doug and Brad and Jesse. Here we are, we're back in the studio.

Speaker 3:

It's our season, finally Wait, wait, season finale. That the studio. It's our season, finally Wait, Wait, season finale. That's it I think that is it.

Speaker 2:

These were the big things you always had. I mean, obviously we have to end on a cliffhanger. We don't know what it is yet, but season finales, all the time, cliffhanger. So Jesse may just mute us partway through and that's it, that's just a cliffhanger.

Speaker 3:

What were they saying? We're going to end halfway through the sentence of what color is Brad going to dye his hair?

Speaker 2:

So you're just going to have to dye, or what?

Speaker 3:

Yes, he's going to surprise you, his hair is going to be dyed and then it stops and the next season starts with purple.

Speaker 2:

So what we're going to do today is we're going to spend just a few minutes together wrapping up our season three, and we're going to be talking about how not to have a bummer summer. Now, this is not just going to be about for you personally it will be something else for you but how you, as a parent, a grandparent, aunt, uncle, youth leader, whoever you are that's listening to this you can avoid having a bummer summer yourself and help others in your life have the same thing. But first of all, I do need to point out it's hot.

Speaker 1:

I like to state the obvious A little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but the good thing is, what I've noticed where we live here is that it is hot, but it is a massively disgusting wet, gross heat. So I think that's good, isn't it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for pointing that out.

Speaker 3:

That's what they say, isn't it? I couldn't believe it. You know, I looked at the weather app today and it said actual temp 97 feels like temp Mars. But I got to tell you this really fast. I saw this summer deodorant commercial online. It's for this thing I think it's called Lume or something, and they call it an all-body natural deodorant, which, for the summer which I'm not sure how that all works it's quite a workout right after the shower. Hopefully it's not in place in the shower, but this was great. Listen, the way they put it is. I got to read this word for word A man of increasingly heftier carriage may find greater incidence of perspatory excessiveness.

Speaker 2:

Those of us who have a few extra pounds might be able to see where I'm coming from. But oh, yay summer, oh my goodness.

Speaker 3:

That is pretty funny. I like perspatory and suffering from perspatory excessiveness.

Speaker 2:

So it is summer and the extra dose of deodorant doesn't hurt. But I will say that I've got some big summer plans coming up. But first, jesse Doug, any big summer plans, or what do you like to do in the summer? What did you get?

Speaker 1:

Well, we have this thing called Warrior Leadership Summit coming up next week.

Speaker 2:

We do. Warrior Leadership Summit is coming and you, Jesse, and you, Doug, are part of the mostly Native you guys aren't, I hate to tell you, but Mostly Native Worship Team at Warrior Leadership Summit, where we will have hundreds of Native young people from across North America. I can't wait, it's going to be awesome.

Speaker 3:

And then, of course, on Eagle's Wings. If we're talking about summer plans, you know that our family will sometimes travel with the On Eagle's Wings team to offer support, so my summer plans are basically touring the beautiful restrooms of the country. In other words, somehow my kids I don't know how all three could have been. They were all blessed with the world's smallest bladder. So every 30 minutes, Dad, no, no, please don't say it, Dad, can we stop again?

Speaker 2:

I do have to tell you for me, we have this new splash pad in Harrison. I'm laying there all summer.

Speaker 1:

I know it's mostly for children.

Speaker 3:

The children might grow a little annoyed with that.

Speaker 2:

No, I've reserved it.

Speaker 3:

It's blocked out for hours, just for me, mommy what do we do with the big man living in the middle?

Speaker 2:

of the splash pad.

Speaker 3:

Just jump over him.

Speaker 2:

It's a new sport. Actually, what I am doing is in just a few days my family and I start with Warrior Leadership Summit. We load up an RV and we travel with the On Eagle Swings Hope team and we get to see front row seat of what God is doing. We get to chase his glory. As one of our cooks for the team once said. We chase his glory all summer seeing the miracles he does through native young people telling other native young people about the hope they found in Jesus. Now an RV life. You see like awesome the commercials. You see camping world commercials and all these things. It's like these families are. We don't RV like others. Families are like pulling into these campgrounds and it's beautiful and they set up. We've stayed in a couple RV parks. We'll just stay like one night while traveling and people have like inflatables. There's pink flamingos in their yard and everything RV life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we don't do that, but what we normally do, you know, we're driving along and we're trying to stay ahead of the team, get places, we need to go and everything. So I see a Panera Bread Awesome. So there we go. We're stopping for lunch. Normally, I know I'm driving a large RV. Normally I park and I go in. I saw that there was a wide open drive-thru. I mean like it was wide.

Speaker 3:

There was nothing. There was nothing. This is what they call foreshadowing in novels.

Speaker 2:

There was nothing on either side.

Speaker 1:

I'm telling you, officer, I pull up plenty of room. It was wide open.

Speaker 2:

The person taking my order. Did they say a word? No, I think they went and got the other workers. So I go to that window and you know, Panera has windows all around, so everyone inside. All of a sudden I start pulling forward and there's just this tight wall that I oh no I I can't even explain.

Speaker 2:

The sound I heard was there I start pulling through there was and I so I thought the good news is end of the story. I thought that it was going to be just ripped up the side. It wasn't there.

Speaker 3:

I mean there was some to be just ripped up the side. It wasn't Only the.

Speaker 2:

Panera Bread was yeah, it took out the window.

Speaker 3:

Run honey.

Speaker 2:

Forget the order. Drive-thru had a whole new meaning, but I have to tell you that I now cannot show my face at any Panera ever again because of embarrassment that went out of the company-wide email.

Speaker 3:

They have the picture of the RV and Brad's terrified face behind the cash register.

Speaker 1:

They said we need to warn the other.

Speaker 2:

That was probably about a decade ago and it lives in infamy in my family. Why?

Speaker 3:

don't they show that stuff in those RV commercials? The RV movie?

Speaker 2:

with Robin Williams. I got to tell you it's closer than you think after some of those experiences. But you know what that was? Because I thought I knew the better way to go. I thought, hey, I know the right direction to take here Playing by your own rules kind of Exactly, and all of a sudden I found myself thinking about David.

Speaker 1:

I'm sensing a segue we are, we are.

Speaker 2:

So this is where I all of a sudden and there's a scene in RV, actually in the movie, where he doesn't listen to the GPS winds up going over a mountaintop. And it's ridiculous. But we see that just in our own lives where we're like, hey, no, I know better, I know I can fit through there, I know that I can do this and make it through. But then all of a sudden we realize, oh wait, I took a detour leading to what could be a bummer summer. 1 Samuel, 11, 2 through 5.

Speaker 2:

One late afternoon David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent to ask about her and was told isn't this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite? David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her. Then she returned home. Before long she realized she was pregnant. We see in this passage what happens when we take a detour and that's what we're going to talk about this summer is how to avoid those summer detours and how you can help someone else not have a bummer summer filled with regret.

Speaker 3:

So let's dive in. You know, it's interesting too that in that scripture that it says of David in the springtime, when kings were going to war, he decides to kind of skirt his spiritual responsibility and just start maybe just taking a look around, taking a glance at them. When I hear that story, man, I think about how easy it is for us to view Bathsheba on our phones these days and all it took was a glance. A great way to start a detour in the summer, because there are people walking around, not a lot of clothes, all that stuff is just to start to give in to those things, especially if you're a guy. But the cool thing about the summer is it has kind of a different rhythm. I think we'd all probably say there's some things we'd like to improve about ourselves. Why not take the summer to work on those? Some areas maybe we need to grow spiritually, some relationships, maybe, especially with our spouse or with our kids, maybe our grandkids, that we'd like to see become stronger or closer.

Speaker 3:

So, brad, you brought up this idea the other day and the first thing that hit me was this Don't let this summer go by, doug, without asking the Lord. Maybe each day during this summer, like King David did, psalm 139, search me, o God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there's anything offensive in me and lead me in the way everlasting. And then maybe try this Write down what he tells you. If you ask him that, especially in a quiet place, he will tell you Give him a little time, be still. Know he's God. Maybe he's telling you to get serious about walking away from something that you've been too dependent on that's affecting your relationship with him. Maybe it's an addiction and maybe he's just saying get closer to your spouse. Take this time with your kids, where they have a different rhythm, where they've got more free time on their hands. Are they going to just spend it playing video games all summer, or are you going to be intentional with your kids, your grandkids, your youth group and really make an impact with them?

Speaker 2:

I think that's the key is we see that David took this brief detour. He was a man after God's own heart and he takes this brief detour because there's more time. Things are a little different, season's changing and all of a sudden we see that with ourselves that we take these momentary detours that can lead to huge regrets. And we know that summertime is a time with more time. Honestly, it's a time with more skin that people are seeing.

Speaker 2:

It's a time with more time on devices for your kids and grandkids, especially because you may still be working, going to work your normal schedule. What are your kids doing all day at home? What are they spending their time looking at? And you may say well, the device is hey, we've got internet filters, we've got blockers and everything else.

Speaker 2:

The enemy keeps looking for ways that those can be beat, where the images can come through. So you could look at it as man. There's all these things and there's all this time and there's chances for just a vacation, but we know that a vacation without purpose can all of a sudden go a different direction than you had ever hoped, and so what we're talking about is yeah, doug, how do we look at where we can invest our summer instead of wasting a summer to invest it? Invest your summer in saying, hey, we have extra time, we have things that we could look at, doing something that we don't usually have the time to do because of school, because of sports, whatever else. All of a sudden, what can we do as a family? To invest our summer in our family and in the lives of others?

Speaker 3:

to invest our summer in our family and in the lives of others. I want to encourage you, if you're listening and you have some time this summer, spend some time, like I said, asking God to point out areas where you can honor him more. You may find an area where you need him to break some chains. It could be something you're too dependent on, even an addiction. I just feel like, very briefly, I'm going to do this in 60 seconds, kind of a way, a prescription for breaking free of an addiction. 3b is real quick a brother. Be accountable to someone you trust.

Speaker 3:

Sin is a vampire. Drag it into the light. In James 5.16, it says if you need healing, confess your sin to one another. So, number one of the three Bs a brother. Number two a Bible. Romans 12.2 says we're transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let God's word clorox your mind. Spend extra time to memorize scripture that has to do with beating this addiction. And finally, a bat like a baseball bat. In Acts 19, we see how the church found some things that were dishonoring to God, some sorcery books, and they didn't go sell them, they didn't put them in a drawer somewhere, they did a bonfire in the middle of the town. They were burning every bridge back to the old them. So you can't go back. So you're new and free, so you'll never go back. Burn those bridges. If a bridge is an SI, swimsuit issue, movies with the wrong junk and whatever it is, be radical about getting rid of that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Do you have anything, brad, this summer you might be trying with your kids, or First of all, I really like that, Doug, as far as the phrase you used, be radical about it, because I think that we live in a world where it's kind of like, well, this is okay, I don't want to look too different, I don't want to stand out too much. It takes radical faith and radical steps of faith to have a radically life-changing summer, and that's where you can look Okay. So you hear people all the time talk about I've got to get in shape for the swimsuit. I've got a long way to go, but you've got to get you know people are like it might take more than a week.

Speaker 2:

No, doubt we're going on vacation in a week. I better get started. Well, and so you hear people talk about that because they want to look different for the summer. What if you look at this?

Speaker 2:

as an opportunity to look different on the other side of summer when, all of a sudden, you say, man, by the time our kids start school, our grandkids start school by the time maybe you have an empty nest and you're like man by the time my wife and I just get on the other side of the summer. How do you want things to look? And I think one thing that is a huge area of focus is to intentionally spend time together. So let's talk about the family for just a minute here that, before you look outward, make sure that you are caring for the family at home. So, doug, you and I were talking and I love one of the things you mentioned. Just the other night, I just said to my kids I'm like, all right, who wants to play Mario Kart? I'm the worst. That's what they love. I love the game, but they're like Dad, you have to drift. I'm like I don't know what you're saying.

Speaker 3:

Mario Kart, the video game.

Speaker 2:

Yes, they're like press these eight keys all at once and turn around and you will all of a sudden win. And I'm just like but they know it is. We have so much fun because, well, they do know. We have so much fun because I'm coming in uh, not dead last, which is good, but I know they're going to win, but we have a lot of fun just doing that together. So the point on that is what are your kids doing? What does your spouse do that you could do along with them, instead of just saying, hey, go have fun. What can you do to invest in them?

Speaker 3:

I love that example. When you hear it at first you might go are you crazy? Join them playing video games. I don't like video games. That's not really the point. The point is, rather than you know, you might have a conviction against your kids playing video games, and that's fine. But whatever, it is something that they love doing. Enter into it with them rather than saying, oh, that's kid stuff, especially maybe because you're not as good at it as they are, because they will have the greatest blast.

Speaker 2:

They do, they will.

Speaker 3:

Mom and dad are always in charge. They'll have a blast seeing mom and dad kind of struggle through it and something they can beat them in. Brad, you're right, summertime is a great time. Summertime, the summer months, are kind of a bonding agent time where you can grow in a relationship at warp speed compared to the rest of the year, where there's school and something happening in sports every night.

Speaker 2:

Doug, talk to me about just something. I know you've shared it on the podcast before, but talk to us about the dude's power verse. Talk to us about what, maybe a place someone could get started, and we'll boil this down for you. But what do you do with your boys?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, let's do a couple of these here. Yeah, we a little while back. You know we want our kids to love the Bible, but they're younger, and I mean one is 18, now, one is 12, one is 21. But what we do is we've always tried to make Scripture learning a fun thing. So we have this thing called—now we also go over Scripture with our daughter.

Speaker 1:

But she's in college.

Speaker 3:

So it's just like the three dudes me and my two sons and we have a just-the-dude's-power verse, just-the-dude's-power verse, and we chant this and we learn a Scripture verse that might be especially good for a growing young man. We make it fun. Sometimes there are prizes. If you learn a certain level of them and like we'll do these, like the On Eagle's Wings team does, Dad will teach the On Eagle's Wings team these scriptures and they'll use these enormous, huge body movements that are funny.

Speaker 3:

I'm not talking like little finger pop, I'm talking like big, and my boys just absolutely love it. You know what happened the other day? My son was praying for something that we needed. We had learned a scripture verse a little earlier, just about you do not have because you do not ask, and when you do ask, you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motives. Real quick he prayed and he said Lord, you know that we need this. I know you say we don't have because we don't ask, but we are asking and you say that we don't get what we ask for because it's for the wrong reasons. Well, this is a great reason. We want to bring you glory, god. So would you please bring this to us. And God in His mercy, two days later actually directly answered that prayer. It was awesome seeing our kids approach God with Scripture. So, yeah, maybe start a Bible verse contest. You know, play video games with your kids. What do you got?

Speaker 2:

You got to have a couple like this. I think the reality is that you may be like man we can't learn a verse a week, we can't do this or whatever else but you can start, get started with something new, start a new family tradition. That Start with something new, start a new family tradition, start with short verses. Yeah, and I do love what you say as far as one of the reasons we mentioned the video games. We mentioned kind of the fun motions with verses. Some are supposed to be fun. In people's minds it's supposed to be a time of fun. So if all of a sudden you're like we're going to study the word of God together in our extra time so you learn to not disobey your parents.

Speaker 2:

That's the thing. So just make it fun, make it something they'll remember.

Speaker 3:

Help them understand why it's valuable.

Speaker 2:

What a great phrase to hear. Can we do that again? You know something's happening there, jesse. I wanted to ask you real quick For those this is kind of on the personal level, for those who maybe listen just have some extra time this summer. You're doing something to do a little more learning this summer, and what are you doing with some of your summer?

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, doug, you mentioned Romans 12 too before.

Speaker 1:

If you look ahead to Romans 12, 11, it says never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. And the reason why that hits me is because summer I tend, when my rhythm and when my schedule gets thrown off, I mean I can get lazy and it's not bad to take breaks, it's good to take breaks. But getting lazy in my love for and service to the Lord, like you mentioned, david, before, can actually have some long term penalties. So I think about even things like regular things, like church attendance and spending time with the Lord and spending time with other Christians. If I let that slack or slide during the summer, I'm actually endangering myself moving forward. So I'm in school for the summer and that takes up a lot of time, but I'm trying as much as I can. How can I stay involved in church and have others around me to encourage me in that zeal? Because I find when I'm off on my own my zeal is going to turn a little bit lazy and a little bit sloppy.

Speaker 3:

Man, that is so good. Jesse's actually getting your Master's at. What is it, Jesse? It's your MDiv, your Master's of Divinity. Pretty awesome thing.

Speaker 2:

It is, I will say yeah, that's why he's in school. It's not because he was held back or anything. That's not the summer school he's in. He's repeating ninth grade.

Speaker 3:

But I love that, jesse, and that's another. Maybe another quick great example here is whether you're a grandparent, parent working with young people. Ask the kids that you have some influence with to think about who needs help in the community. Summer's a great time to help them learn how to serve. Ask them to think about that themselves. Ask them how they think then they could help those people Maybe it's elderly people Then give it a name and put it into action together.

Speaker 3:

Nothing bonds you together like serving together. Let these summer months be your bonding agents with your family, especially when your kids own it. It was their idea, they named it, they decided how to help them. You know how easy it is to find a nursing home in your town and call them. It's really. You might think it's hard. Call them and just say could our kids come and read with, talk with the older folks there that are maybe lonely, and you have just taught your kids that summer is about not just, yes, having fun yourself, but serving and learning and bonding together by doing that and bringing some summer fun to someone else Even that can be fun.

Speaker 2:

And guess what's even easier to find than a nursing home in your area? Even that can be fun. And guess what's even easier to find than a nursing home in your area? A neighbor? Look next door, yes, your neighbor. I have neighbors around me who are now will be traveling most of the summer, but a couple of them have just sold their houses. Not because of us, I want to make that clear, but they've sold their homes.

Speaker 3:

They heard about the RV incident at the Panera Bread. We can't live next to this man Pretty much Panera execs.

Speaker 2:

If they're loading up a moving truck, what about stopping and saying, hey, do you need any help with that? If they are just a neighbor to make something for them in your town, next door to you, in your community, who are the people in need? So I love that, doug, single mom, bring some cookies. Absolutely Ask to mow their lawn. So listen, I hope you've got where we're coming from today, that we have an opportunity in the summer, a choice to make. Really, are we going to make the bold choice to avoid the detours, to avoid those mistakes that can be made when we take that spiritual summer vacation, and are we going to help others make the bold choice to help others embrace what the summer can be in a fun way, in an enjoyable way, but, yes, in a life-changing and meaningful way? We pray that you'll be able to do that. We thank you for joining us this season, for all that we've covered.

Speaker 3:

We have covered so much ground Season three already done.

Speaker 2:

Well and Doug, what would you say for those that are looking forward to season four?

Speaker 3:

we've got some great ideas already for season four, including some great guests. Great guests. We do want to thank you for listening and hopefully, together we're learning and hearing from God about how to be a greater ambassador for him. We're all in this together and hearing from God about how to be a greater ambassador for him. We're all in this together. We would ask one thing Maybe between now and when Season 4 starts, in the fall, would you share. If you enjoy this podcast, would you share it with a friend, or maybe six of them? Leave a review, click five stars. If it's only one star, make sure you blame Brad in the review. No, but really, we would really appreciate it, maybe even pray about who could benefit from learning more about how to be an ambassador and maybe share it with them, share it with the family member. We sure would appreciate that, because we can't wait to get to season four with our friends here again.

Speaker 2:

We can't wait to get to season four with our friends here again. So from all of us, all of you, just an encouragement to have just avoid that bummer summer. Be Christ's ambassador every day as you go through the summer months ahead, and we pray that from now till we get to talk with you again, you will go mad.